Ag industry persuades MPCA to loosen regulations of acetochlor

January 25, 2008

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Officials with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency adopted regulations limiting the amount of the farm chemical acetochlor that can safely flow into the state's rivers and lakes. But at the urging of agriculture industry giants, the new standard is less strict than the one originally proposed. As a result, three of five rivers that the state had previously classified as ''impaired'' by acetochlor will no longer be considered polluted. The state had a change of heart after hearing from scientists at Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences. The new standard allows more than twice the concentration of the chemical in rivers than proposed. MPCA officials said industry scientists used studies to persuade the state that its original proposal was too strict. ''When we added that information and ran it through the process we came up with a different number,'' said Marvin Hora, MPCA manager in charge of water assessment and environmental reporting. ''That's the way the process is supposed to work.'' Company officials say even the new maximum level of acetochlor - 3.6 parts per billion in water - is scientifically unjustified. But some environmental advocacy groups say the MPCA hasn't taken seriously other research suggesting that exposure can cause ecological damage. Pesticides containing acetochlor - which kills weeds before they can grow in cornfields - are used widely in Minnesota. As the chemical runs off fields and into rivers and lakes, there is concern about keeping concentrations at a level that will be safe for aquatic plants. ''It looks like there's a double standard, that industry can come in and suggest changes without putting it up for new review and comment,'' said Janette Brimmer, legal director for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. Hora said that's ''a bunch of bull.'' ''We have met with all kinds of groups, and people come in and talk with us about (water quality) standards all the time,'' he said. Paul Wotzka, a former hydrologist for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, said acetochlor was first marketed in Minnesota in 1994 and it showed up in waterways almost immediately. Over the years, acetochlor levels in the Whitewater River have jumped as more corn is grown and more herbicide is used, he said. Wotzka was fired from his state job and filed a whistleblower lawsuit last May, claiming he wasn't allowed to testify at the Legislature about his research on atrazine, another pesticides. State officials said he was fired for other reasons but haven't discussed details, citing personnel privacy laws. Dan Stoddard, assistant director for environmental programs at the Agriculture Department, said his agency asked the MPCA in 2002 to develop an acetochlor standard.